Unfrozen
by Grapefruit-seven
Summary: What if the land Hyrule is coated with snow and ice all around, making a hard time for it's inhabitants and Link to survive this freezing mess?
1. Prologue

_DISCLAMER: I don't own Legend of Zelda, only the idea and writing and any necessary included character._

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If one set its eyes on the ancient lands of Hyrule, a country blessed by the Goddesses themselves and under the governance of the prudent Royal Family that resided near the capital city, and if one was of an age a normal human could never achieve, it would expect a growing, youthful and spiritual country not only in the broad Hyrule Field, but also in the desert, mountain, lake, forest and the many small cities and farms through the whole country, all exploding with life of all sorts, guided by peaceful individuals of the Hylian race – rather than plain white and cold lairs of the death, stealing every ounce of life the land had resisted or that the sun brought away. However, this was an inevitable truth.

And if one overcame the melancholic shock for the ancient lands of paradise to have vanished and morphed into something that twisted, and if its eyes adjusted to the pure white surreal snow all around the place that rivalled the whites of the majestic clouds one had in its memory, it would notice that in fact the area would not be as white and waste as it once thought.

It would have been white and waste if the shadows created by the weak sun hiding behind a small layer of dust and snow were not darker than the flecks of light reflected by the small miniature water crystals labelled snow all around.

It would have been white and waste if not for the slightly greyish blue sky that bore no clouds today.

It would have been white and waste if not for the covered entrance supposing to be a small cavern of bluish colours further away.

And it definitely would have been white and waste if not for the small youth carefully avoiding to create any trail of his journey through the hindering snow in an opposite direction the blue lair was located.

That one would of course never knew of this child's history or his intention why to cross that sea of white dead.

The boy, roughly assumed between twelve and fourteen years of human life, kept walking forward in a slow manner, making sure the long cloth he had wrapped around himself, a cloak that had been trading its owners more often without the need of money than a normal cape of an Hylian knight would and of which's origin the boy neither knew or cared about, did the least to undo the tracks his feet clothed in wide and fuzzy claw-like shoes created. Only because he wore that kind of animalistic shoes he was able to not sink too deep inside the old snow.

The boy with the blond hair that he bound back with a big bandana for it not to hinder his concentration kept mumbling to himself. In fact, he created the idea to be a ventriloquist, for his monologues never truly escaped his lips. After considerable time of at least some minutes of slow progress he was more or less repeating questions similar to "He always told us to wait. I can't seem to get it why you deceived the pack! Have you forgotten that 'The Pack is stronger than One Alone'? Shesh, you treat them like they were Injured – and they're not!".

After hearing this several times, he sighed as if he was not the original source of the lecturing voice and to ones surprise he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, looking back over his progress and answered unnerved, now with his mouth: "Shin, shuddup." His other voice gasped with indignation, however before it was able to answer, the boy's second voice continued: "I know what I do. And I know Gamesh told us to stay hidden until he returns. But – that was months away! Everybody left in the den was starving, because they were too weak and scared to hunt prey alone! They're better off dead!" The boy grinned satisfied and relieved to finally be allowed to point out his true opinion without having to fear any life-threatening consequences.

If it was one thing that made his father's minions disobey, it was their temper. Nobody wanted to be accused as Injured.

"And here I thought your dad had taught you the essential moral standards… you're so-". The voice was cut off again as the boy started to pat the scarf of his, resulting in gasping and coughing and angry yelling of the first voice the boy had used. If one would not have been sure he was all alone in this ocean of freezing desert, one would have thought the youth had talent for performing in the villages, possibly even in the royal city.

"Of course he did teach me, whaddaya think?" His grin widened mischievous as he increased the strength of his 'patting', making the other voice screech even angrier in pain. "Comoon, you sure know old Gamesh told us the basics many times." He stopped 'patting' his scarf and clasped his hands behind his torso, waiting impatiently. After recovering a few seconds the other voice returned.

"Yeah, but you always ignored to learn them on purpose."

"Oyeah?", the boy inquired, apparently mocking the himself with an edge of pride and lots of fun.

"Yeah! First: 'The Pack is stronger than One Alone', second: 'The Command of a chief is first priority and always has a bigger plan behind', third: 'All monster are equally created by dark magic', fourth: 'Injured are worse than dead'." The boy giggled, making his first voice of the scarf abruptly realize its own stupidity, letting it gasp once again at a loss of words. The scarf expectedly started to stir, ruffled, releasing a small critter not larger than a hand wide, walking on eight fuzzy black legs and bearing a pattern of a white skull on its main body.

A monster.

Although small in appearance, it roared frustrated in a deep voice."YOU…! You made me recite the basic rules AGAIN!" Upon hearing the minor creature's protest, the boy's smile that once again had increased in its intensity and now reminded more of a wide, toothy grin of a crocodile rather than a human's fashionable smile finally cracked and he busted out in a truly amused derider's laugh.

"Pfahahahaha!"

And with all the sudden, he became frozen serious, leaning forward as if he actually was trying to sneak away from the cavern and now realizing he was being too loud to not be heard.

"You…" He started walking anew, frowning on how little his progress was.

"You…" It was in vain. Although he tried to keep his voice at least a little down, it exploded once again as he was no longer able to suppress his true joy. Luckily this mocking laugher quieted down quite fast, allowing him to at least stumble forward like a drunkard and giggling holding his throbbing side. Finally recovering his breath and thought, he preserved:

"_I_ did nothing, _you_ did it all by yourself! No need to blame _me_!" The monster with the form reminding the one of a spider only grumbled, now once again completely hidden by the boy's comfortable warm scarf.

"Not next time, Ben", it cursed under its breath, frustrated and embarrassed the same time,"not next time."

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_Ancillary information book: _

_Monster-slang: Is characterised by putting words together, resulting in really fast speech that is commonly hard to understand by normal lightbeings (humans etc.). Is often heard to be mistook as mere grunting.  
_

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A/N: Hell yes, I've published this here! :D

**EDIT: Yes, Link will definitely be joining us sure and he's one of the main protagonists, fear nothing!**

I've always been curious, in the Zelda Universe you fight monsters in all games, so I thought, all evil creatures pop up as some warlord like Vaati or Ganon appear and act under his command – however, this wouldn't explain the small creatures like crows and chu chus and poes, these things seems to roam the country even where's no big bad daddy around (e.g. in Termina you have monsters everywhere and they're apparently not under Majora's command, just living here and hindering Link). That's when it hit me that perhaps most of this small fry might have almost nothing to do with the bad dungeon guys. Then, are these just 'normal inhabitants of a form not like humans/hylians', like the Deku appear to be (in MM most are friendly except those guards that you can kill) or the Keatons?

(Oh, and if you ever stumble over 'Unfrozen' on , then you've probably found either an art theft...

-or me! XD Name is lyoth737 there, and I've uploaded it there before here, but I feel obliged to continue uploading it there as well.

Reviews are always loved.


	2. Counterpart

_DISCLAMER: I don't own Legend of Zelda, only the idea and writing and any necessary included character._

* * *

On a warm summer's day, with the chirping orchestra at its opening overture for the evening part, a woman with a thick belly she held slowly approached the brown fence, partly grown over with moss and in a straight manner along the stony path and the young man hoeing on the field behind. It was the soil of both adults, for they inherited this small farm after the decease of its former male owner, the father of the well-looking girl that now clung onto the old fence, watching her for almost two years husband.

She remembered it like yesterday, the time both met, fell in love and struggled to convince her daddy of the benefits the marriage with this strong lad had. Eventually they ended up inheriting the small farm instead of staying in busy town with its smell and sound and safety.

It was when the young hylian lady noticed the gloomy look on her beloved's face. She laughed. "Hey, cheer it up! The seed won't grow any faster if you threaten them with your gaze." The tanned lad visibly winced and began to laugh as well, although it was half-hearted. "We will get a good harvest this year, I'm sure of it", the lady presumed proudly.

Then the pregnant woman tried to reach over the fence to stroke her love over the chin and failed. The young man chuckled at her weak attempt and helpless waving and closed the gap between them by taking her hand and rubbed it gently. However, his tone soon went serious again. "It sure is good to be optimistic… but, I wouldn't be so sure in the next few years. I know I've pretty much experience in agriculture", he threw his fist in the air exaggerated, making the woman laugh because she knew he was a child of the city and, before moving to their farm house in North-east, had been working as a soldier, not a farmer until two years ago, "but even I know that a normal winter would have ended one or two months ago. I really wonder if we will be able to make huge profit with this year's harvest – or if we even should sell it in Kakariko at all."

The hylian lady tilted her head, confused.

Her father always had been selling a part of their harvest on the market, for their land to be located on the ancient lava remainings provided through the Death Mountain long, long time ago produced more harvest than in most other areas of Hyrule Field. "I mean, sure, owing to the cold and long winters we would get much more money for the corn than your father ever received, but… if these harsh winter times don't end and even grow longer, we definitely need the food all for ourselves… especially with the new kid."

At that both of them fixed their gazes onto the round belly of the lady and their worries washed away a bit. "We can always ask your uncle for assistance", the woman said. The lad's uncle was not only a wise and intelligent man, but also the head of a small village near Kakariko, located more inside the Hyrule Field. He'd always insisted, if anything happened to them or they needed his help, they could always come by and talk.

"Yep, I've been visiting him the day before yesterday, after I've been buying the new equipment. He's told me of some incidents happening to the south-western parts of Hyrule, that they have to endure a growing number of monster attacks. I wonder if anything of this gossip is correct, but for sure I've seen many foreign people travelling to Hyrule city. Uncle told me all over the country people are wandering and searching for better ground and food, and that even the Gorons and Zoras were among them."

The lady's head shot up in surprise. "The Zoras?" And after seeing her husband nodding, added: "But, the Zoras need water for surviving, don't they? Then, what do they search for in Hyrule Field?" "I guess they've the same problems with the cold that we have."

At that, both of them noticed some travellers, three young women clothed in bright and shining dresses resembling the colours of their hair."I can't believe it they actually plan something like that!", the one on the right with a long ponytail shouted loudly and was calmed down with a "Hush, keep it down until we're out of earshot!" of the smaller one on the left.

There was a short greeting on both sides, then the ladies walked away, discussing. Probably all three were members of a travelling circus, at least which would explain their monochrome colour choices of green, blue and red and probably were discussing an insider incident or a change of their scenes.

Little did both farmers know their guess was correct, but in a metaphoric version.

"Sure thing, there aren't many descendants of the pure Hylian race left that are not corrupt, egoistic or bad in any other aspect, but…", the red woman on the right trailed off. "Yeah, that's the problem – we really don't know if this might work…", the green lady on the left added, equally troubled. "But if we wait for a better opportunity…", the red lady started again, "…there probably won't be a second chance", the blue lady with a harp in the middle of both ended.

"What are those Goddesses thinking?", the green woman threw in angrily. "They've never before given a part of the Triforce to twins! It's impossible to divide it into two pieces, isn't it?" "Even if, it only would lead to more splitting of the other parts", the blue harp lady answered. "For keeping the balance." "But twins are both the same! How can the Triforce choose between two equal? It is something far away from fair and square!", the green lady pressed on, definitely bothered by it.

"It is the only choice."

Now the red dancer lady added into the conversation: "What will happen to the Rejected one? We never had something like this before, what happens if the child dies?" The blue lady just sighed. "But if we wait, it will be too late for all these people to be saved by the Hero. It is essential to plan at least ten years in beforehand, so if anything happens afterwards, the Hero can take care of it. We have to place it now, otherwise it will be too late – although I don't like it as well as you do."

"The Goddesses know what they do."

"Hey." It was once again white and cold – not that it has been something else than white and cold all the time.

Fore some the most interesting thing about snow is to squeeze it into a more or less round ball and, with the experience of having thrown many balls before, luckily hitting a body part of the sudden enemy or victim and enjoying either the screeching and sobbing reaction or the repelling snow attacks, leading into an eager snow fight with not victims of importance.

Others might enjoy it more to roll in snow, make figures in snow or piling up snow over snow, calling it either snowman or Sir Frosty. However, if there is snow all year round, the most important thing suddenly is to get it unfrozen right away. Or to see some else's tracks that could lead to a pleasant dinner. Therefore most creatures of any race either hid their tracks or avoided it completely by flying or floating above.

Thus, seeing a clear line made of fuzzy shoes either means that this creature is incredibly strong or incredibly self-assured. Or incredibly stupid, for it attracts enemies.

"Hey, listen to me." Of course Ben did not. Aren't clouds a fascinating thing? Of course he did not know that normally clouds carried rain inside their pure white bodies, of course the only time he saw something fall from the sky had always been flying monsters or snow. And snow was everywhere. "You sure know you're creating a sign 'Attack Me', don't you?", Shin grumbled inside his scarf.

The boy only smirked. Little did the little pest of him know he was stronger than he thought. Stronger than everybody else thought. He had been training on daily basis as soon as he had the thought of leaving in mind, daily. He'd gonna show him and that would leave little shrimps flabbergasted. He chuckled. And then he'd take over the world, yes-no. In fact, who would want to take over a frozen world? Who even needs a frozen world? Unfreeze it. "Hey!"

Ben's attention suddenly came back to his path and the snow. Shin's voice had been taking a dangerous edge, as if he really cared to be heard now, not like his normal cascades of words. He felt Shin rustling inside his scarf, turning around so that his feet were lightly tipping on Ben's throat and ready for any emergency action, a final message that something definitely was not all cake and tea. Ben cursed lowly and drew his sword. It was an old, basic one he had stolen from an old disgusting human along with the cloak he no longer used for covering his trails. Was it because of this? Now he caught sight of the opponent he had found himself.

It was a Bulblin, a rather small one and sitting on a black Bullbo boar that seemed eager to dash forth any moment. What it did the next second with its rider yodelling, shouting and cursing as Ben effortlessly sidestepped and avoided the boar's sharp hewers, chuckling. That struck the monsters' nerves and they turned back immediately, screaming even harder. And Ben – simply sidestepped once again. Suddenly the Bulblin took out his bow, obviously testing if he could hit Ben with something quicker than his boar. Puckering of furious brows and a faint curse under the breath on the wrong side of the bow, then

"Hay, STOOOOOOPPU!"

The battlefield froze, both enemies holding their cringing singing ears. "Slug, WHATDAHELL!?", the Bulblin yelled half deaf after looking up from where the booming voice had been coming from.

A little creature hovered in the air, flapping with its ears and puffing up. "Newbie!", it replied. "Imbecile!", followed with "Ignorant!", the little white creature continued to shout. "Haven't we told you to 'Ask before Attack'?" The warmly dressed archer grumbled. "Have you ever heard of Gamesh? You sure did, didn'ta?"

And with that, the Snurgle resembling a small elefant left its raging jabbering, flapping across to the boy holding his ears and watching the small previous monolog.

"Welcmo back, Ben! Howveya bee?" "Still booming voice, Slug, still booming voice." Ben more or less knocked the creature halfway down as he shortly patted its back. "Umfu, still strong left fist you got there." It hovered back up. "Excuse Bukko's behaviour, he's newbie." "No need, evybody is newbie once. But – ", he paused, "Kanpachute is available, or?"

"Surthin! Just enjoying his tea right now, probably best time for visiting! Should I come along?"

"Nah, no need, I suppose I know the way. Or has he finally decided to redecorate his little den?" Slug trumpeted his normal laugh. "Unfreezing some snow? Hell no, if he did, we definitely would have some problems!"

Both of them fell into fits of laughing, making the two newbies wonder if they really joined the right group.

* * *

_Ancillary information book: _

_Ancient Hyrule, population statistics:__ Was told to be full with cities, villages and farms all around Hyrule Field and the capital city; much trading even with foreign countries; rich people; no supply shortages;; population nowadays decreased heavily with the worsening weather conditions (Suggestion: 1/10 remained) ; most inhabitants fled to other countries; (...)_

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A/N: In my opinion, the land of Hyrule always seems to lack of its inhabitants in the games. And I personally think the only point why there are almost none outside Hyrule city is because then the Hyrule field would be needed to stretch veery wide – and nobody wants to ride (or even walk!) three hours just to get from the lake to the city (and the game itself would not have enough space for that much characters and that large space). So, in real-Hyrule all places are stretched out and far bigger than in the original.

Oh, and for references, I took the map of Ocarina of Time for the locations. Without all the round rocks all around. Lost Woods are also in south-east, Death Mountain is the biggest part of a chain of mountains and Hyrule Field is twice or thrice its original wide. More realistic.

Reviews are always loved.


	3. Creamtea

_DISCLAMER: I don't own Legend of Zelda, only the idea and writing and any necessary included character._

* * *

Normal morning passes by. Normally not much is remembered correctly what is done the day before whereas the day tomorrow equalled the previous except for either very immense memory capability, a daily diary.

Or if the memory is treasured because it was only little time until an alteration occurred, either an environmental or personally one.

Nevertheless, the matter that one of the stronger members that inhabited the petty, half decayed accumulation of houses surrounded by loads of patched up protection wall and two small watch-towers in dirty white and equally buried beneath knee-high snow coverlet was being killed in an monster's attack three days ago barely contaminated the daily program. The sighting post on both sides needed to be recruited with sharp eyes, the hick town's smith fire and only really source of comfortable warmth of the whole village wanted to be fed and the animals needed a feeding hand full with dry cornstalks of wheat that grew in the least warmth light place, meaning inside the smith's room and enabled the hicksville at least with a constant food supply for surviving. The firing barn house was also used for providing the other habitable houses with fire, unfreezing water and chilblains and last but not least forging weapons for defending and other daily needs.

Seeing the old, partly rusted and rotten entrance door that had been extra padded so that less warmth was stolen away, the animals inside the little barn started to stir, move and wake up from their daily dream. Except of a dark brown and reddish female, all six fuzzy yak steers trotted towards the front and away where they had stood before in unison.

Yet they were completely abused in their dreaming demand of being fed more before the sunset as the young girl with dark blond hair quickly closed the door behind her, not letting the harsh cold winds reach inside the tiny damp and murky stable, dodging her way through the demanding muzzles of the yak and stopping near the lone female yak in the back and its owner, a slightly older and blond boy sitting on the straw-covered ground cross-legged. The blond hylian turned his head around as she spoke a single panting word. "Link." He looked up to her, anticipating what she demanded that hard right now to visit him in the smelly room he normally spend most of his time if he didn't have to be on watch duty, dinner or sword training, heck, he even often slept inside the always warm and damp cowshed and even was nicknamed by the villagers of his light blond hair that reminded of straw that much that he had to be wary around yak muzzles as a small child. Eventually the steers spotted after some time that his hair was nothing to eat, and later he had proudly gained the responsibility for the village's hairy mules.

"It is time." It was said in a wobbly voice attended by a hardly suppressed sob that caught his attention.

Quickly, the blond Hylian hopped up, brushed his back slightly to loosen some stray straws and faced her. Her thick clothes were disarranged in a mess like she definitely was inattentive – and he believed she was. Everybody would if one's own father was to be interred in a funeral. He embraced her hard in compassion and stroke her messy hair from under her dark blue and dirty round hat.

After a short while of broken sobbing, weeping and consoling the straw blond took the sad girl's hand and both countered the freezing wall between the old barn and the hidden, covered backyard that even now served its purpose as a churchyard although the origin villagers had fled or died long ago.

Everybody of the mere thirty refugees that found the lost hamlet years ago and inhabited it once again were already gathered safe for the two refugees on watch duty on the two watch-towers and the apprentice keeping over the fire instead of its now dead master. Having the town's smith dying was always trouble, however if the life of its inhabitants depended on the smith's warmth, it brought extra trouble.

The old mage from Hyrule's capital former city that luckily found his way towards their refugee village after wandering the silent white lands long time began a magical pray towards the Goddesses and was accomplished by faint prayers from the villagers for the safety of the deceased man's soul.

The dead silence was never broken and after the full funeral ceremony the crowd slowly trotted defeated back to their houses, only a few like the dark blond-haired girl that still sobbed into her mother's chest and was being consoled both by the mother and Link remained. Now there once again was a new grave on the graveyard fields. Link took a step forward and slightly stroked the new gravestone with the inscribed name of his now dead uncle. The man had not only been his only uncle, but also his mentor for swordfight and strength. He even had been his trainee for around two years until he had taken the responsibility for the yaks after the former caretaker had died as well.

"Yet another one parted from us, now it was the smith's turn. What we will become…" Link heard one of the strong warriors that kneeled a bit afar at another grave, namely his mother's one. Although his strong dad had lost his right arm in an incident years ago, he still remained one of the strongest the village had.

He silently made his way towards his mother's tomb and his kneeling father before it. As soon as the old soldier noticed his son's approach, he silently stood up and watched him sadly gaze upon the rough stone. "It seems another one of our old home faded away…" he slightly turned to watch Link's aunt holding the younger cousin and embracing the hiccupping girl.

"Another one fell under the vile claws of the evil monsters…" Link said nothing and fixated his blank stare somewhere in the snow in order to avoid his father's look that exactly reflected his own, only with the addition of more burning hate towards the malice of the creatures. He suddenly noticed the fleck of snow he focused onto was slightly darker than the rest.

Mildly curiosity spread on the top of his otherwise frozen feelings, so he bend down and wiped the snow away, releasing another gravestone. This one was just a small one and the written inscriptions were barely visible. "Dad…?" He heard the man approach as well and then inhale. His father's expressions were hardly to read as Link turned his face.

"It says 'R.I.P. Leon', if you ever want to know."

He frowned as he went through his memories in search of someone called with that name. The results were none. None. He didn't know this man lying next to his mother's grave. What did a complete stranger even on their graveyard? The gravestones from the origin villagers were on the other side of the yard. "Dad, who is this Leon? And why is he buried next to mom?" His father said nothing and only began walking back, ignoring his leery question. "Dad!" Link shot up angrily and stormed towards his father. "Dad, who exactly is this Leon?!" He blocked his strong father's way, puffing up his chest and evenly looking in the face.

"None of your concern, boy. Out of way."

There was a small commotion as Link was roughly pushed away, yet only after a hard struggle he gave his father. He wasn't a small weak kid anymore! He was around fourteen and a half years old and already was considered a real man in the whole village except for his dad.

He growled and stomped over to his aunt as soon as his commanding father left the hidden graveyard place, grapping her on her shoulders and angrily staring into her eyes. "Who is Leon?!" he demanded. That got a great shock onto his aunt's face and she clasped her gloved hands in front of her face. "From where do you know that name?!" "WHO the hell is LEON?!" That got his cousins interest as well and she pinned her mother with her reddened weepy eyes, eager to know the answer as well. If Link was asking that furious, then it had to be serious, hadn't it?

"I…I…" It was when Link noticed her trembling lips and fearful gaze and realization dawned on him that he in fact was threatening his own aunt, frightening her.

Therefore he quickly took a startled step back, bringing his hands up apologetic. "S-Sorry, I didn't mean to threaten you!" A bit calmed down, he proceeded: "It's just… I've found a small gravestone next to my mother's one and – I don't even know any Leon and-" Cautiously approaching forward, his aunt took his upheld hands lightly and made them lower in front of him. Comprehension dawned on her eyes as he slowly made eye contact with her, a bit ashamed of his previous outburst. "Your father scolded you?" she asked wary, yet knowingly. He nodded, turning his view away from her fragile face while frowning slightly and towards his mother's grave. He felt his mother's sister's gloved hand lightly touching his cheek, then she whispered: "He was your brother…" Rich blue eyes shot around in bewilderment.

"WHAT?!"

Ben hummed, obviously in good mood.

Strolling quite happy through the wide snow, he persistently ignored the clicking and grunting noise behind him. "Saay Bukko, how longdascha intent to stalk me?" he beamed over the shoulder back to the small thick covered Bulblin with his black Bullbo that still had the characteristic lighting-like white streaks on its fur. The only resonance he achieved was a louder snort and a grunt followed after.

"You heard Kapachute's command" he uttered grumpily. Ben tilted his head with the yellow bandana enchaining his blond hair out of his face. Merely squinting his blue eyes, he immediately tried to recall the speech.

After chatting with the floating Slug, he had gone into Kapachute's thick ocean blue glowing cavern with all the broad white stalactites and stalagmites turning the giant limestone cave into an artificial maze.

The only lead Ben had to focus onto though was the blue fire light next to Kapachute, so the only thing he had to do was to follow the light and not get lost like almost every previous time.

"Good morning, Ben, son of Gamesh. I may suggest you like some tea?" was the welcoming he received as he reached the small clearing with a stalagmite twice as big as tree trunks and with an even bigger very long, slender, silver dragon wrapping himself around. As usual, the booming, roaring comment made the icicles around them clink, partly crack and morph into faint dust specks, and the dragon wasn't even talking loudly. Silver grey body scales twinkled in the blue flame's light and Ben took place cross-legged directly confronting the head of the giant dragon. Smoothly taking an offered piece of red frozen tea-flavoured ice from the giant's claws, Ben took a few delicious licks before he broke the awaiting silence which had befallen them.

"I'm in search of Gamesh."

The slender, snake-like body began twisting itself in interest and Ben was scrutinized by the enormous sharp bright blue coloured dragon's eye.

"Oh? The One in the dark mist wants to search someone in the dark? You sure feel no caution."

Ben displayed a rather pouty and unimpressed face while licking his tea. In fact, a normal light dweller and even a normal monster would be wary and anxious with the enormous teeth grinning directly ahead. Ben wondered about other things for he knew the lathy dragon ever since he remembered, visiting the chief from time to time with his dad Gamesh for tea chatting. And sure thing, he did take risks, wandering around all by himself, without a helping hand in fights and no guiding companion. And he knew he easily got distracted and confused, not good for wandering an unknown area – but it definitely was worth the fun.

"Hey, tellma, have you heard anything of Gamesh after he left last?"

More, like two months already? Two months too much at least.

The wise dragon proceeded twisting his lower body parts in interest. If he had a propter, strong airborne body of a winged dragon, he wouldn't be able to twist his body more than twice around itself, however thanks to his agile, lanky snake-like proportions he was able to keep his habit with ease. Hissing, Kapachute apologized: "It either seems my dear old friend wants my tail out of his private business or he ended up having a hard time taking a fight."

"So, basically, either way is not cake and tea" Ben summed up, crossing his arms.

Kapachute sent out a booming roar of laugh that quite vibrated in Ben's gut and making him feel disorientated.

"I fear no! However. I still have a treat to give."

"Candy ice?" Ben licked his tea excited.

"A tip."

The boy struck out his tongue, telling he liked sweets more. Kapachute huffed amused at that while raising his head minimal and twisting his tail pleasantly, then continued: "Ever heard of the Helmaroc King? He is told to be of the most accuracy in source of secrets he finds while soaring over Hyrule. He may enlighten you on your self-assured quest." And that got a brightening smile on Ben. "Where can I find him?"

Bukko's boar suddenly squeaked loudly, startling the thought sunken boy in his reminds and letting him wince. He shot an rather unpleased and unconcentrated glance backwards although not really caring about what the small thick clothed Bulblin chatted about in an exaggerated slang, sounding even to Ben's ears like foreign squeaks and grunts. Probably they had learnt that weird accent in a former clan or group far west or east. Or was it north and south? Or, was it a propter talk at all if not simple grunting noises without sense? And why did these two pests still follow him? He was being sure he'd already left Kapachute's main residence area towards Death Mountain and…

Ben raised his eyebrows in surprise. Death Mountain! That had been where Kapachute had told him that Helmaroc King claimed a horst on top. And didn't the ice dragon want him to at least take one companion for protection with him? Say, did this mean he had got himself an own minion? His face beamed at that prospect and he turned towards his new follower proudly.

"Hey, Bukko!"

"Buck."

"Huh?"

That got him more confused now. Had he said 'buck' towards him? Or was it rather a foreign word spoken with his Bullbo? Or was it a buck that he spotted nearby?

"I already tolda the name is Buck, not Bukko." Now the busy Bulblin turned around, obviously frowning and started to say something, however was quickly interrupted.

"Not Bukko? What then? Why?"

The creature's eye twitched disgruntled. He definitely hated being interrupted talking. "Thadam Snurgle called me that. My real name is Buck."

"Snurgle? Which one?"

The horned creature exhaled bugged while looking at the positive disorientated boy he had been commanded to guide. No wonder if the human-lookalike even got confused that easily.

"Slug."

Now it seemed to dawn on the bandana guy. Before the child was able to propter respond, he cut in the thing he had wanted to say the whole time since Cat had got his interest. "There's a light dweller nearby."

"Where, where, Slug?"

That comment ticked him off.

"I toldahundretims thanam is BUCK! B-U-C-K!"

The blond boy held up his hands as if he was being accused for no reason.

"Calm down, calm down!"

"I AM calm" was the cold, strained response through clenched teeth.

The boy's scarf suddenly visibly ruffled and released a small and black spider-like monster. "He's right, Ben, there's a human near, probably one or two. And an animal, I suppose it's a pack mule thing." The small creature with the deep voice then guided all of them towards a cover and as soon as they peeked around the white corner, Buck noticed his weird companion to fidget and bounce in excitement.

It really was only a lone human, probably hylian, attended by a big and fuzzy yak packed with various stuff, both walking away from them and luckily the wind was in their favour. Buck wondered if the treasure really was worth the prize or if the mule only carried uninteresting dirt. Ben brought his toothy grinning face near Buck and he quietly suggested:

"I attack it with the sword and you with your arrows! But only injure it and draw the attention away from me for surprise attacks! No killing, yeah?"

"Sure."

No, he definitely wouldn't be that stupid to kill the prey beforehand. He had heard those light dwellers mostly ate yuck dead stuff. However, no normal monster except for maybe those mindless zombies and stalfos tried to kill their victims before they could extract the life force of them. So sure he would be careful to just injure, not kill.

"I suppose we fight the human first, they often are harder takeep. And if the fuzzy thing starts running off, shoot its leg, 'kay?"

He sighed at the all excited boy and nodded. They attacked.

* * *

_Ancillary information book: _

_Refugee village:__is really what it suggests. Was found abandoned around 10 to 12 years ago and turned into a muralsurrounded village; two watch-towers located in north and south-west for the two gates towards Goronia and Hyrule Field; inhabits about 30 refugees; 7 of the 13 houses are habited, 4 other are destroyed; main house and most important part is the smith; occassionate monster attacks (however through high security not often); luckily no plague or food problems; rather comfortable compared to other refugee villages; in loose contact to Goronia;(...)_

* * *

A/N: First part originally was with a dying uncle caused by a plague and he tells Link the secret shortly before he dies...  
however, it sucked so I reanimated the uncle with my artist power and killed him three days earlier.

1.) yes, brother. twin brother for accuracy. however 2.) no "you're my brother? we suddenly are unbreakable family, trusting ourself much more than we normally ever would if we confronted a stranger, but who cares, we are family! OOC OOC OOC...", no more like 3.) the fact that Link apparently has a twin brother is no main point of this fanfiction, it's the plot that's important and 4.) no, no "evil twin brother and world warlock for no reason"

Reviews are always loved.


	4. Tie-in

_DISCLAMER: I don't own Legend of Zelda, only the idea and writing and any necessary included character._

* * *

Link kept staring right at his aunt wide-eyed, trying to digest the scraps of information that boiled in his gut. Question after question poured down his racing mind.

That was when their sensitive hylian ears picked up a rumbling from near. Before they were able to react, the earth under their feet shook violently as if it wanted to shake off all of its little ground dwellers, leaving them stumbling and screaming and toppling on the snowy ground until the earth settled down once again. "…what was that…?"

Soon after they got their composition back, they picked up panicked flailing and quickly approaching noise from the village. All three turned, aghasted by how the feature of horror distorted the running man's normal visage into one of a mask. "What happened?" his aunt asked harsh as he stopped ahead of them, wheezing like a yak and with sweat of both rush and fear fighting whether to colour the skin in red heat or white snow. "Tha-the s-smith" he wheezed, suddenly grasping the lady's shoulders in despair, a face of terror. "The f-fire – it's out!" "WHAT?! You're kidding!?" The second she responded, the expressions of both aunt and cousin turned into furious stones and even the little girl squeaked lightly. The smith's fire out?! That'd never happened since they found the village and made it their home. "No way!" his aunt and experienced wife of the unluckily right now deceased only smith pointed then commanded everyone to rush back into the village.

They were greeted in a chorus of chaos, confusion and terror – the earlier earthquake had rattled too much on some houses, luckily most uninhabited, and most would be busy looking for injured.

If it hadn't been for the racing rumour that the town's smith had been damaged. Everybody knew it was one of the worst possible things to happen if the only source of heat, water, harvest and life died down. Link literally had to shovel their way through the horrified mass flanking the main entrance of the smith. It was only natural for them to expose such fear – if they weren't able to produce the food they required for surviving, it would eventually lead to giving up homes and travelling the lands once again, and most of them would face death through starvation, cold or monster.

After several commotions and minutes they were finally able to enter the smith's harvest room. The complex, large construction of iron and stone implanted into the opposite of the room illuminated the wide room they entered, yet unusual dim and another proof of wrongness. Several black and thick tubes that connected hot steam or air towards other parts of the building as well as towards other houses were also holding their breaths in shock instead of the humming and hissing that used to be all around. It was way off the normal that in fact the most noise came from Link and his aunt making way through the half-grown crops from either dangling from the ceiling in wide pots and extra supported by metal bars or in not varnished earth on the ground. Both adults stopped ahead of a large black iron door, decorated with thick sets of windows that usually brightened up the whole room and served as the crop's light.

Inside was terrible. Normally the magically reinforced iron would have held the enormous heat of the lava they had stored in the huge kettle and originally had been from Death Mountain itself, however the ever-hungry red heat they usually fed with wood, scraps, fresh air and occasionally water to produce hot steam for the houses had somehow been able to melt the magically protected thick iron and upon reaching the icy permanent frozen ground, the ground had cracked open from violent heat differences and had caused the minor earthquake. It was evident that most of the spilled lava had swept into the wide cracks and had lost most of its original heat. Almost everything of the lava had turned black until now. It was amazing seeing that even hot lava were loosing to the freezing cold.

"Link, collect every remaining useable heat clumps and evacuate to the 'New-grounds'!" his aunt instructed with a stony frown. He simply nodded. "I have the feeling I know who did this mess…" her voice dropped another few inch and reached a deadly ice now.

Link made sure to hurry away as fast as possible from the frightening stare reserved for an especially unlucky apprentice. As he found the purpose-built and magically enhanced overalls neatly hung onto a clothes rack, he winced. Sure, he had experience in the job of a fire-caretaker, however the last time he had been in the fire room had been about two years away – his clothes were too small! In a time like that!

He felt sweat dropping down his skin since it still was hot inside with the addition of the adrenalin rush and stress. And then he caught sight of a fitting version of the one-part-clothes he absolutely needed on for safety entering the heat room. It… was a woman's set of clothes, namely his aunt's. Although they didn't vary much from the male's version, it made him blush a bit as he had to slip in it, out of other options.

But as long as they served their purpose…

Hurrying inside the enormous black and damaged kettle, Link now wore the black overall accomplished with a heavy set of thick iron and leather boots and grey glossy big gloves, both magically enchanted to withstand the heat to a bearable amount. He had placed most of his blond hair included his ponytail under a stiff cap and also shouldered some strong leather bags especially designed for transporting lava as well as a shovel.

Equipped like that, he began searching for surviving flecks of red lava in the frozen sea of black and grey. While shoving the found specks into the held bags, he overheard the angry conversation between his aunt and the new apprentice echoing within the kettle, only that it sounded more like a shouting monologue and whining pleas in respond.

Of course Link felt pity with the youth, nonetheless the damage was done and had to be patched up. Punishment came afterwards. In fact, Link knew they still possessed the potential to undergo the crisis without failing and having to leave the village – at least not all, one strong warrior should do fine. However, if his scheme was to be accepted – and there really was no time to develop a better one – it would need a warrior experienced with lava fire. And that would kick out everyone except his aunt, his now dead uncle, the currently scolded apprentice or himself.

Unfortunately, Link was only able to fill three bags of the bright heat that hadn't lost most of their power till now and currently was heaving the last one on his back towards the entitled 'new-grounds', a newer and smaller kettle they had built up until now to provide even more heat. It was still unfinished, but could keep the fire warm and protected with a little help. He closed the big iron door with a stomp that caught his furious aunt's attention and reached him while yanking a lanky young boy in one of the black overalls on his screaming and apologizing ear behind. "Go! At least lade the bag from Link and take it to the new kettle!"

She still was visible angry after the poor boy had almost collapsing under the weight of the bag Link transferred to him, finally stumbling out the door and sight. "Oh, how often have I told him not to disturb the reinforcement gem with the heat-restraining protection?! – How much damage?" she turned serious to the sweating and exhausted blond. "The lava has made its way through the bottom and caused the earthquake. I suppose the house is on unstable grounds now. And most of the lava is swallowed up and cold, I was only able to save three bags." "Darn…and that of any time the worst…" He picked up her stern look as well.

"We still can fix this. All I need to do is to get fresh hot lava to heat the new smith fire enough again." She glanced at him, crossing her arms. "But – you don't really want to do that, do you? I need your help here." "But the other villagers don't know which specific type of lava is needed and where to get access of it." She arched a brow at that. "And you only know of it because we were telling it." Now Link crossed his arms as well. "Your fault you weren't taking me with you when you brought new one. But you've told me anything important already I guess. I just need to catch enough supplies, it won't be that hard." She nodded in thought and soon handed him several magical amplified leather bags for transportation.

It was several minutes after Link left the smith for preparations for his journey when she finally noticed he had been wearing… her female uniform… Stunned she chuckled and took off. That boy…!

So, Link did his best to avoid the other panicked and busy villagers. If they knew one of the good fighters and one of the few with experience of the smith maintenance left their refugee hide for an unknown return, they surely would panic more – and he was certain his father wouldn't allow him to leave, although it was very important. So, asking anyone for aiding companionship and aid was out of question. And that ultimately sucked in a dangerous landscape filled with white fluff.

At least he could take some weapons along – he's never been outside the village much and definitely not on Death Mountain before. Bow and sword should do fine, he guessed. However before taking care of that thing, he had to get himself ready for a longer journey. So his aiming point was the house of him what luckily seemed to have withstood the earlier earthquake and stood next to the yak barn. He quickly doffed his smith overall, bundled it and packed it into a bag.

Putting on his brown, thick travel trousers over his thick and black normal ones, he removed his belt and the orange cloth around it that made him recognizable as the one in charge for the yaks since he didn't think a sign like that would help him fending off cold too much. So instead he slipped his green travel shirt on his normal white and blue patched one, the one that his uncle had given him two years earlier and in which he finally seemed to have grown into. Next he changed his boots in favour of fluffy, warmer ones as well as a warm set of leather-coated gloves over his green casual gauntlets, some bottles, a red scarf and his long white furry yakskin coat. Last but not least he plopped his long, warm-coated green, long and slender hat on his head. So, next were food and water provisions and defence material…

He froze in shock as he heard footsteps. Heavy footsteps.

He didn't want to be discovered readying himself for a journey, it only would take more time to explain his goal to many people – and he had not much of it to begin with. He hid himself in the room just as he heard a booming angry voice.

"LIIIINK! MORON, COME OUT AT ONCE! WE NEED YOUR HELP! LIINK!"

He winced in his hidden hide. Of all the possibilities, it had to be his dad. His angry moron of father. He heard heavy footsteps creeping up from the yak barn into the house, screaming to find him, and eventually landing in the room. He ducked lower.

"LIIINK!?"

He felt his heart beat against his crouched chest nervously. Then there was mumbled swearing and in his luck the strong old soldier decided against further investigation.

Several minutes after his father had left the house shouting like a madman, Link finally was able to draw a deep breath and continue packing, now more careful than ever. Feeling slightly uncomfortable for dumping his own father, he attached the sword's belt over his shoulder as well as a quiver, the old sword his father had gave him, the blue one with some red, grey and yellow markings his father had called to be the insignia of Hyrule, and a bow as well. His next point was to pack his beloved yak Epona in the barn next to the house with the provisions he found and had stored in his home, therefore wood, his fire-enchanted working set, food, bandaging material, travel rug, tinderbox, knife and other minor stuff.

Nodding to himself, he took Epona's bridles and, with many wary, cautious gleams, left his home. It seemed luck was favouring him a bit since he was able to sneak towards the hidden graveyard with his yak behind and nobody exclaimed his name or ran up to him in anger. In fact it seemed everyone was too busy to notice him and his animal. It was unknown to most people that behind the hidden graveyard was a third, hidden exit out of the refugee village, but since it was only to open and see from the inside, there was no need to tell everyone and put up a watch.

Just as he reached out his hand to open, he froze. Then huffed and turned.

What did all the fancy preparing help if he didn't know the directions where to? Of course, Death Mountain was easy to recognize. But that didn't count for the passages towards. And he didn't want to climb up a heavy way only to find out it was a deadlock. Definitely not.

But where from could he take advice without stopping too long? His gaze immediately fell towards the old house near the graveyard, the one of the old weird mage. In silent he entered the cramped, dark house, dragging Epona with him in the progress since he didn't want to be discovered through leaving her packed like that outside.

It would spark questions in less a second.

Once inside he felt like blind on such sudden low light that only leaked through half covered windows and was partly buried under all kind of furniture and other objects Link had only seen in the old mage's house where he and the other villagers had taken lessons of education, magic and Goddesses since the old weirdo had found their little refugee village. Odd crystallize objects, heavy and huge books, useless furniture for burning and stuffing things inside, a huge bookcase, a large carpet and much more bizarre things caught his interest as he entered the main living room. The candles were blown out and apparently the highbrow wasn't home, however from somewhere pink light seemed to brighten the cramped room enough to let some things sparkle and appear from within the chamber and let Link search his way through in hope to find a map.

He heaved some thick books around, searched and found nothing particular. Damn his luck.

At that he heard a light chinking of glass that made him stiffen in fear of a returning mage to find his mess even more messed. The odd light brightened up a few seconds until it returned to its origin intensity, but was enough for Link to catch his attention. What was that that his education teacher had that glowed pink? It couldn't be a candle for sure. Something magical it had to be. He hopped onto some shaky-looking rubbish and reached onto higher grounds of the cupboard where he suspected the light source. His fumbling stretched fingers wrapped around something cold and when he withdrew his arm with the object in question, his face changed into one of heavy surprise.

He really held a bottle. Nothing very special about bottles, however the insides were astonishing. Pink light emitted from his hands as he held it astonished in both hands and the whole light, although dim, covered the whole creature save for the four transparent, tender and light dragonfly wings.

He really couldn't believe the old mage had captured a fairy. Fairies were said to be extinct or at least didn't leave the forest – whatever forest was since he never had seen one in real life, only in tales. But that was beside the point and he knew that, but he kept imaging forests and fairies flittering through the whole time since he had left the village behind in the snow. And yeah, he was only borrowing the fairy that now dangled next to the other bottles on his proud belt, he didn't steal it form the had heard fairies were good in healing and since they were able to fly, it would come in handy for replacing the map he didn't find.

Hopefully he wouldn't have to encounter any problems or monster that roamed these lands… but if he would, he would make them tremble away from his sword.

Definitely.

If he ever was attacked, he would show his father some presents of them when he returned and that would make the old moron realize he was an adult and not a child he had to overprotect.

He hummed a little tune and definitely was not prepared to suddenly hear clanging. Confused like he was, he looked down towards the source of noise, seeing the little pink brighter shining orb flitter up and down quite agitated, knocking on the glass whenever it moved. The blond unhooked the bottled bottle from his brown belt and held it next to his face, his blue eyes filled with curiosity and amazement. The pink fairy angrily flittered against the glass without stop, shouting to the boy from her muffled prison. All of the sudden, she congealed in her rampage, looking backwards and quite in contrast to her earlier outburst. Not understanding a thing, Link casually glanced back if anything interesting had caught the little light flabbergasted -

and froze as well.

Dead in his tracks, around fife metres behind him and Epona and partly hidden from cowering low a boy froze as well.

Or at least, he looked like one the first glance.

The second glance however Link came to notice the rather skull-like mask with various feathers sticking out on top that strongly reminded him of the ancient tales of a forest monster that was said to once be a lost boy.

It was also when Link noticed the monster Bulblin further behind readying his bow.

Before he was about to warn the other boy of the danger, the masked counterpart shot out of shock, letting loose a quite inhuman roar with sharp teeth and dashed towards Link while drawing his sword. The blond however was quick enough to draw and block the incoming swordmonster. Epona mooed in fright and shock since the boy had rushed past her and trotted a bit afar of the upcoming battle ground.

"What the…?!" Link exclaimed, however was kept shut with a quick series of random sword attacks from his fast opponent. He was sure the other boy didn't seem to be a rather fine sword fighter since he was able to block all the hits that were served despite the quickness they were delivered.

The incoming arrow that he was only able to avoid through putting up his shield was more of a danger. His right hand vibrated slightly as well as his left, both by defending from different opponents. Another approaching arrow was barely avoided through stepping back, what only resumed in the shorter ranged fighter to close up again.

Link knew this would result into a hit on the long range since it was two against one, but he wasn't able to put the masked monster grinning in front of him on the defensive with the permanent interruption of the other monster's arrows. In a fair and square swordfight perhaps.

Just that second he heard another hiss of a nearing arrow, but this time he wasn't able to block it since the monster on the boar had snuck around him from safe distance and had shot his back.

Pain exploded in his right calf and he visibly grimaced.

His vision blurred of his scrunched eyes, but he returned the favour to his toothy grinning opponent by suddenly lunging out and forward and whipping the sword out of the surprised other's hand.

The first second his enemy stood there, gobsmacked and unarmed, the next few second later he was receiving a furious, hard kick in the side that distracted him from his leg's wound to his now sore left side.

He tumbled, gasping and barely able to regain his stance with some unstable steps. He heard a pleased, monstrous snarl of victory and, before he could block it, was kicked again in his side, tripped, fell over and hit hard rock ground with only bits of snow and warmer than the rest.

Now his whole body exploded in pain and he clenched his teeth in soreness, out of breath from the kick. If he had hit normal snow, he probably would have been up his feet in no time. Minus the arrow in his right leg and sore gut. However, being kicked onto hard, sharp-edged rock wasn't helping it at all.

Seconds later he saw and heard the humane monster growling and towering confidently over him.

That wasn't gonna be the end! He had to bring the new fire to his fellow comrades! Help them rebuilding the village!

… and perhaps if the snow ever melted away help the country bloom again… that would be nice…

He tried to push himself up on his knees, not letting his pain take over his mind.

Just then what he didn't expect was that something under his right side to stir and, with a singing high cry, a pink fairy to shoot up like a bright rocket, screaming a high-pitched and very loud shout.

"HEEEEEY!"

Oh, she was so out of it!

Just as she finally accepted the fate that she would stay imprisoned in this vile transparent prison on the shelf the rest of her pity excuse of life, she woke up to suddenly find her on the waist of another evil human.

Though it was nice being outside for years after all that time, she hadn't expected to see white, white, white and white. No plants, no trees, just snow and occasionally rocks.

Oh, how she hated that. She always hated the snow even when she still lived in the forest. Vile, vile, vile.

And then she had felt the black presence behind and actually went down her pride so low to actually help the sucker noticing his lurking problem. Trustworthy naivety.

And then the boy just had to decide to hook her up on his girdle instead of letting her drop on accident and escape. The whole fight had made her incredibly dizzy since the sword clanging made the bottle wobble violently and knocking her from one side to another.

But she had to admit she was shocked as well to find the boy being shot in the leg by that arrow. Immediately her cursed healing instincts screamed on her to help the poor boy, but since she was bottled, she couldn't even if she wanted. And besides, she already hated the boy for shaking her several times, making her head and several other body parts burn from pain. On the other hand, if the monster boy found her and decided to eat her, she was better of with the hylian.

And then the boy was tripped forcefully and by crashing down onto rock, accidently crashed her prison as well.

That got her stunned for a while. Had he? Really?

As soon as that thought dawned on her, she noticed the boy move.

Nonono. She was out, so no more!

Screaming her wrath and happiness, she propelled herself from the ground into the air.

Oh, how long had it been since she last felt the sensation of wind ruffling through her wings? The fine warm feeling of freedom and pride filled her little body…

until she shrieked and barely was able to dodge an incoming hand.

The skull-mask boy looked at her in absolute fascination and excitement. And that was one of the looks she absolutely feared most.

Screaming, she tried to flutter away like a maniac from the yet again catching hands.

However after flying a few metres, her lungs felt like they kinda exploded. Yet she kept flying, avoiding the following monster and accidently drawing a flight circle in progress with the carefree masked boy deadly behind and back towards the start.

She cursed. Her wings were in such pain after not flying properly for years! They felt like they came off! And then, dark and warm fingers enclosed her completely, covering the cold blue daylight. It was over…

And then she found herself flopping facedown onto the bottom of another bottle, again.

"You dare to touch my fairy and you're dead, monster" came an ice-dead voice.

Wait, she was inside a bottle and still could hear the outside? She proper flopped herself up, still wheezing like crazy.

The monsterboy stood in front of her – and she noticed she was inside an open bottle dangling from the green hylian's belt.

The monster boy chuckled amused although the hylian boy had his sword pointing right at his neck and shooting death stares. The monster turned its head careless, smirking at her green saviour with loads of sharp, pointy teeth and then exclaimed:

"Then, we're doing a tournament over it and the first winner gets the fairy and the second winner gets noothin!"

And that caught both fairy and hylian boy off guard.

Ben took the cool opportunity to dash a few feet away and avoid the sharp sword before it could make him any harm. Next he jumped over to his fallen sword and, while picking it up in delight, called:

"Oi, Bucky, no arrows whiltis, yea? No cheating I say!"

He also addressed the still bewildered boy. "Y-you can talk?! I thought you were a monster, sorry!" the boy yelped and Ben crossed his arms while playing pouty although he really didn't feel any offended at all.

"Whatcha yappering about, human? I'm definitely monster, no kiddin!" he stated proudly, knocking his chest with the fist once. He knew some mistook him first glance as a human, so he was used to it.

His opponent however still needed some beating in the hand to register the message, it seemed. Therefore he began tossing his little sword between his hands while slowly approaching the tournament enemy.

Left, right, left, right, left, right. "So, only rule is only sword, and prize is fairy, okay?" he repeated eagerly. The other blond frowned while holding his side and readying towards a broad stance that favoured his still healthy leg.

"No."

"Okay! Then start!"

And with that, he tossed his sword.

Link was barely able to yelp and block it with his shield, a clattering as the fallen sword hit the snowy ground the human had moved to.

"Hey, only sword you said! And I said no!" the human exclaimed in indignation.

Ben only responded with a grinning dash, then purposely slipped before him, gripped the fallen sword and lashed out from the bottom, but to his displeasure the other avoided it by stepping back and blocking with the shield. Therefore Ben hopped up and created a small space and again began tossing the sword between his hands.

"Hey, Imnod complaining myself thadya use yourshield along the way. It kinda violates every rule, even sinzits only one, yanaw?" He huffed after that and the obvious confused look on his green opponent and earned a baffled "What?", but didn't care for further explanation.

His main focus was on the next set of attacks. The green human brought up his shield, probably expecting another toss.

He could take advantage of the human's injured leg, now couldn't he?

Deciding his move, he grasped the flipping hilt and ran rounding onto Link's back and then attack him, hopefully most unexpected. Yet the greeny was able to repel his attack and start his own serves even though he sure was grimacing in pain while following Ben on his half guessed the pain fuelled his desire to win.

Luckily the previous hit on the rock and the arrow wound did their thing to slow the green-clothed human on inching on Ben fast enough, so he made sure to flip and avoid being grazed by the other's whirling iron.

In a fair and square spar known between proud human warriors, Ben sure would have lost after short time because of loss of sword or lack of defence. However, since Ben neither knew of this customary nor cared about it in fact, even if he was told.

It was evidently not working as smoothly as he wanted without the arrow distraction. The most time he and greeny sparred and blocked each other's blows with the human being stronger and more experienced – and handicapped by his wounds for Ben's he slowly noticed getting more and more exhausted and he knew greeny felt same way since he had sweat beads forming on his forehead as well.

Ah, how he craved for the pink blob of light! Gamesh had often told in his fairy tales that fairies were one of the yummiest and purest things to eat. By the way, why did old Gamesh call his stories 'Fairy tales'?

Did these taste good as well?

His blue eyes widened in surprise as he snapped back to concentration, almost avoiding the incoming slash. Almost.

He hopped back, fixing his now cut clothes and created some space to examine. Reddish-purplish blood poured out slowly, hissing under meeting contact with air and partly puffing up in violet smoke.

It should dry up pretty soon. Nothing too serious.

He smacked his face, surprising the other blond boy as well as Shin, who currently had transformed his torso into the skull mask and had seized himself on his forehead. The spider monster only grumbled angrily.

Why hadn't he thought of that earlier?! Fairy tales were mind food!

Like humour, just longer – and with more colours! And he wanted that fairy! Perhaps the pinky could tell him some fairy tales before he ate her?

Now he really craved for her much more!

Two simple sword tosses in thought and he had his idea.

Rounding on the hylian he dashed forward while the boy brought up his shield for cover.

What the blond didn't see coming was that Ben suddenly stuck his sword into the ground two wide steps ahead of him, grapping the iron with both arms and thrusting himself feet-forward and full force right into the exposed shield. So much force and the boy loosing his weakened footage made him stumble and crash down backwards with Ben as additional weight on top.

Eying his chance, Ben suddenly heaved the blue shield away and punched the boy's gut.

As soon as he withdrew his fist, he snatched the bottle tangling from the panting teen's waist, hopped up and rushed away from the momentary stunned and gasping boy towards his fellow minions who scared the yak from running away with the provisions.

"Buck, getta goin! We've waisted enagtim!" His baffled companion galloped after him on his boar, shaking his head and leaving a rather breathless and dazed hylian boy on the ground and his quite panicked animal.

So much for having a snack...

* * *

_Ancillary information book: _

_Fairy:__ is a rare creatures of pure light of any colour; has four dragonfly wings for flight; the emitted light is told to be a good replacement for laterns;  
isn't harmed by cold/warm/drowning/hunger; emitted light and fairy glitter can be used for potions; easy for caretaking; said to be located near fountains and forest  
_

* * *

A/N: Originally the until now nameless fairy (althoug I already have it, I won't tell) was given by the old mage and not stolen/borrowed

Sneaky ninja Link didn't have to encounter his angry daddy in the first version; I pity him for having such dad and actually feeling bad for leaving him behind...

And I tried to include the missing nearer descriptions that lacked in previous chapters… darn.

Dude, Ben… now we expect something intellectual when you're smacking yourself into attention, something like 'focus on the fight' – and you tell us you want the fairy to tell you tales – before you eat her. As if she would!

Reviews are always loved.


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